Dogging Tales on Channel 4

Dogging Tales – a documentary on surprise, surprise dogging – is to be shown on Channel 4 this week – Thursday April 4th at 10pm.

Filmed over ten months, the programme investigates the world of dogging in the UK. The documentary follows a range of people as it attempts to gain insight into the reasons men and women engage in or watch sexual activity in front of strangers in public areas under the cover of darkness.


The programme interviews a variety of doggers – as their normal day to day lives draws to a close and they consider their life, relationships and their sexual appetites. As they prepare to go out they begin to slowly shed their daily personas in anticipation, and they are shown indulging in their dogging hobby in car parks, lay-bys, woods and picnic spots up and down the UK – locations that double as dogging locations after dark.

According to the programme makers “Many people have heard of dogging, or know places where it apparently happens, but very few know what goes on in this secretive world. Dogging Tales, is an intimate and compelling documentary told through doggers themselves, who share their experiences of a mysterious, little understood neck of the woods.”

Going beyond the ‘caught in the act’ image often portrayed in the media, the documentary delves into the physical and psychological realm of dogging. The participants allow themselves to be filmed during their sexual encounters but, in subtle yet revealing interviews, they also open up about their attraction to dogging: how they were introduced to it; why they feel a lack of fulfilment without it and how their relationships are enhanced by it.

Channel 4 says the production has a cinematic quality and is a beautifully shot, distinctive film which captures the intimate night time journeys that few people see or experience, but that provides doggers escapism, excitement and self-discovery.

It should be an interesting programme – and you are going to have to watch it live on the night (or set your box to record it) – as it will not be available on the Channel 4 4oD player after the programme has aired.